The NAACP has filed a lawsuit alleging that President Donald Trump and the Republican Party have violated the KKK Act. The latest lawsuit stems from the President's attempt to overturn the results of the latest election. Within their claim, the NAACP argues that Trump's crusade to overturn election results aims to throw out votes in predominantly Black cities and thus disenfranchise Black voters.
"Defendants’ efforts to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters — targeting cities with large Black populations, including Detroit, Michigan, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Atlanta, Georgia — repeat the worst abuses in our nation’s history, where Black Americans were denied a voice in American democracy for most of the first two centuries of the Republic," the lawsuit states.
This is not the first legal battle the NAACP has engaged in with the President. Last month, the civil rights organization filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and a group of Black Michigan voters accusing the President of violating the Voting Rights Act.
The lawsuit does not end with the President. The NAACP has accused the Republican party of aiding the President's effort and thus violating the 1871 law against "preventing by force, intimidation, or threat, any citizen who is lawfully entitled to vote, from giving his support or advocacy in a legal manner, toward or in favor of the election of any lawfully qualified person as an elector for President or Vice President."
Thus far, the Republican National Convention has not responded to the lawsuit, but Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis did offer a brief comment.
“Election integrity is about ensuring that every legal vote is counted and all illegal votes are not counted. This suit is baselessly attacking the Trump Campaign’s efforts to protect the integrity of the ballot for every American,” Ellis said.
Regardless of Trump's efforts and the ongoing legal battle, no political action has been able to reverse President-Elect Joe Biden's victory in November. He is set to be sworn in alongside Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris next month.